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About this site

This Participant Portal was established as an Internet portal for the stakeholders of the EU research and innovation programmes. It provides you a set of services to facilitate your participation in the programmes and related interactions with the Commission. You are encouraged to register yourself with the portal to benefit fully from these services.

Releases

Release notes of the Participant Portal and underlying services can be found
here.

What's New

Latest news on the 2019 ERC Work Programme adoption [03/08/2018]

The adoption of the 2019 ERC Work Programme, originally planned for mid-July, is expected in mid-September. An update on the expected opening date will be posted on the ERC website on 4 September.

The 2019 Starting Grant call, which was expected to be opened in mid-July, will open upon Work Programme adoption and for a shorter time than usual, as the call closure date is expected to be 17 October 2018.

The 2019 Synergy Grant call, which was expected to be opened also in mid-July, will open upon Work Programme adoption and for a shorter time than usual, as the call closure date is expected to be 8 November 2018.

This information is made public to provide potential participants with timely information on upcoming funding opportunities. Only the adopted ERC Work Programme will have legal value. The information provided does not commit or engage the European Commission with regards to the adoption of the Work Programme and its content.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day GAP on 21st September 2018 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement [10/07/2018]

What's next after you have received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 21 September 2018 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne Building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Agenda and Registration (first-come first-served) available via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live web stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

EDA call for experts in defence research [18/06/2018]

The European Defence Agency (EDA) is establishing a database of independent experts who can be called on in connection with the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) (2017- 2021) for the following tasks:

Monitoring of the implementation of actions;

Ethics reviews, checks and audits.

EDA is looking for experts with a high level of expertise and professional experience in a military context, in one or more of the following areas:

Get an insight on Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation requirements in Horizon Europe [12/06/2018]

Are you confused by the requirements on Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation (D&E) in EU research and innovation funding programmes? On 9 July, you will get a chance to learn more on those topics at the ESOF satellite event on "Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation in EU research" organised by the European Commission.
To get EU funding, applicants have the obligation to engage in Communication and D&E activities. However, it is not always clear to them what is the distinction between the three and how grant beneficiaries should concretely implement their plans. During this event we will give an overview on Communication and D&E under the next EU research and innovation framework program proposal, Horizon Europe. You will have a chance to hear from successful EU-funded projects carrying out original and innovative activities in these fields and take part in a panel discussion with the audience. IPR helpdesk will introduce their latest publication “Making the most of your H2020 project”. This half-day event is free and open to EU project coordinators, future applicants and other ESOF delegates. See the programme. For more information on registrations please write to RTD-J5-ESOF@ec.europa.eu with your name, organisation and capacity ("ESOF delegate" or "H2020 project").

The European Commission is looking for experts to review applications for the Horizon Prize for Social Innovation. The purpose of this contest is to develop innovative and sustainable mobility and transport solutions improving the lives of older people and people with disabilities. We are looking for experts with a high level of expertise and professional experience in social innovation, social entrepreneurship, ageing, mobility and transport.

The prize was launched on 27 November 2017 during the "Opening up to an era of social innovation" conference in Lisbon. Applications will be accepted until 28 February 2019 and the prize will be awarded in the second or third quarter of 2019.

After the application deadline, the selected panel of evaluators will assess remotely the applications to identify up to ten finalists, provided that their marks reach at least the thresholds mentioned in the rules of contest. After the remote evaluations, the finalists will be invited for a hearing with the panel of evaluators (central evaluations) to determine the five winners. The evaluators may also be required to perform on-site visits in order to assess the solutions proposed by the finalists.

If you are interested in becoming an evaluator, please complete both of the following steps:

First, register as an expert on the Participant Portal. Please fill in your data and when prompted, select keywords that match your expertise. If you are already registered, please edit your profile in My Expert Area, confirming that you want to serve as expert for the Horizon Prize for Social Innovation.

Second, send an e-mail to RTD-SOCIAL-INNOVATION-PRIZE@ec.europa.eu including your name and surname. It is helpful to mention your expert number from the website mentioned above (example: EX2017A123456).

All information relating to the working conditions of evaluators can be found here.

New features to explore data on Horizon 2020 proposals and projects [16/05/2018]

Our module to explore interactive data on project results just got some cool new features like exporting data, bookmarks, and storytelling.

You can now export data to Excel, bookmark your favourite visualisations, and tell your own stories.

Data storytelling gives you a way of sharing your H2020 data discovery insights. Forget about copy/pasting screenshots to put together that report or presentation. Just take some snapshots and let the system take care of the formatting. Highlight what you want to focus on and add your own comments and explanations.

Mind you, you need to log in to use these advanced functions and at first login there is a small authentication issue that you will need to circumvent. Click on the login button in the upper left corner of the landing page. You will receive an error message. Wait for half a minute, and then click on the refresh button in the error message. You will be logged in and no longer receive the error message in the future. Authentication makes use of EU Login.

Thanks to the great success of the Common Exploitation Booster and the Common Dissemination Booster, the European Commission is planning to launch a new (joint) call for expression of interest in the second half of 2018. We are looking for individual projects or clusters of projects that are motivated and open to learning new exploitation and dissemination techniques to help them make the best use of their results. The services are available to all, ongoing or closed, FP7 or H2020 projects as well as national or regional funded research and innovation projects. Be prepared so you do not miss out!

Call for feedback on Professor Mazzucato's report on missions [07/03/2018]

The Commission is calling on the public and research and innovation stakeholders for feedback on the report, including suggestions for possible EU research and innovation missions. The call for feedback is open until 3 April 2018 and is available HERE.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 12 April 2018 in Brussels – How to Prepare Amendments and Reports [05/03/2018]

The European Commission is organising an information session in Brussels for H2020 participants, so they can learn legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare grant amendments and reports, with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs. The event will take place in the Charlemagne building, in Brussels, from 08.30H to 17.00H. It is mainly meant for grant coordinators, but other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) and agenda are available via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online (live or later on) through a web stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

Some users are reporting spam messages pretending to come from the Participant Portal in which commercial services are being promoted.

Please be on guard against messages which look identical to Participant Portal notifications but which do not stem from the Participant Portal.

We do not have control over messages claiming to be sent ‘on behalf of’ the European Commission.

On this occasion, we would also like to remind you about phishing attempts with the Participant Portal look and feel. Phishing messages typically aim to get your password, ID or bank account details under a fake pretext, for instance inviting you to update your information online. Please note that the Participant Portal will never ask you to send important personal and financial data via email.

Your first action against phishing is to be vigilant. Protect yourself by keeping the following in mind:

Ignore phishing messages. Do not be coerced into following their instructions simply because they have threatened you that something will happen to your account or to your application for EU funding if you do not respond.

Exercise caution when opening attachments or downloading files. These may contain viruses or software that may pose security threats to your computer.

Update your user password regularly. Do not use passwords that can be easily attributed to you such as your name or birthday.

Report any suspicion of a phishing incident to us via our IT Service Desk.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 22 February 2018 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement. [24/01/2018]

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 22 February 2018 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne Building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

Report of the Stakeholders Workshop on Further Simplification held in Brussels on 20 October 2017 [12/01/2018]

Simplification has been at the heart of Horizon 2020. The drive for simplification should continue. To this end, the Commission has organised a workshop, continuing the permanent dialogue with stakeholders on simplification.

The report presents the conference conclusions, condenses the feedback received during the different sessions of the workshop, and sets out the direction in which further steps could be taken towards further simplification, in the context of the preparation of the next research and innovation programme.

Searching partners to submit a proposal just got easier 19/12/2017

The Participant Portal now offers the possibility to look for partners directly in the context of individual call topics (open and forthcoming).

Participants can access the list of existing partner search request for a given topic via the individual call topic pages (example).

From the same place, Legal Entity Appointed Representatives (LEARs) can also create new partner search requests on behalf of their organisation.

ESOF2018 call for poster 11/12/2017

The EuroScience Open Forum 2018 (ESOF) will take place in Toulouse from 9 to 14 July 2018 with the motto
“Sharing science: towards new horizons”. ESOF is the largest interdisciplinary meeting on science,
innovation and their relation to society in Europe. It offers a unique framework for interaction and debate
among scientists, industry, politicians, and society.

The Commission is substantially supporting the event through a grant funded under the 'Science with and for
Society' Work Programme of Horizon2020.

Posters will be presented and highlighted all throughout the ESOF/Toulouse edition, taking place in various
areas of the forum and ensuring high visibility to the presented research projects. This format will also be
a great way to engage in networking with all the ESOF communities (from scientists to media, including
business, science policy makers etc.).

The ESOF2018 call for poster is now published on the ESOF website. All actors are encouraged to participate.
The deadline for the submission is 20 December 2017.

CATEC wins 2017 Innovation Radar Prize 06/12/2017

The Innovation
Radar is an EC initiative to identify high-potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research
and innovation ICT projects. 48 of the best EU-funded innovators have been identified through this
initiative to compete with their EU-funded innovation in five categories for the Innovation Radar Prize 2017.
The great finale with the best 20 innovators took place at the ICT
Proposers' Day in Budapest. CATEC from Spain was able to convince the jury with their advanced
aerial contact drones and won the overall 2017 Innovation Radar Prize. CATEC's drones are able to perform
inspections, such as ultrasonic, that require being in contact with an object in the air. The drone can be
used for inspections of buildings or bridges, and therefore decreases the risks for people working at
height. Seven other EU-funded innovators also secured prizes at the awards ceremony. See the full list of
winners here and find out more about CATEC in their guest blog post and about the Innovation Radar Prize in general
in a
blogpost of Linda Corugedo Steneberg, Director at DG CONNECT.

Submission System switching from Acrobat to HTML5 22/11/2017

The Participant Portal is moving to a new architecture for submission forms, based on HTML5 (gradually replacing the previous pdf-based forms).

This change will enable users to fill out the forms in any browser and platform that is HTML5-compliant, thus avoiding compatibility issues with browsers that no longer support the Adobe plug-in.

Horizon 2020 Dashboard launched 25/10/2017

The new Horizon 2020 Dashboard provides a user-friendly interactive tool for viewing statistics and data on participation in Horizon 2020 proposals and projects, such as success rates, allocated funding and much more. You can filter data down by country, organisation category, type of project, programme areas and call topics, etc. 3 dashboards are provided in this initial version:

Please send your questions and comments on the dashboard to the IT Helpdesk.

Stakeholders Workshop on ideas for further simplification of the implementation of the R&I Framework Programmes, Brussels 20 October 2017 11/10/2017

In the context of the preparation of the 9th Framework Programme, the European Commission is organising a workshop with R&I stakeholders for collecting ideas for further simplification of implementation.

The workshop will take the form of an open discussion with practitioners at working level, going through the technical details of the processes, including proposal submission, evaluation, reporting, documentation, guidance for R&I grant implementation, and IT (see the agenda for more details).

Representatives of European umbrella organisations were invited to participate on site. Any other interested stakeholders are invited to participate remotely via the web forum where a link to the webstreaming will also be available.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 20th November 2017 in Brussels – How to Prepare Amendments and Reports 10/10/2017

The European Commission is organising an information session in Brussels for Grant Coordinators, so they can learn legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare grant amendments and reports, with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs. The event will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 8.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for grant coordinators, but other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream). Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

News for British applicants to Horizon 2020 06/10/2017

For British applicants: Please note that until the UK leaves the EU, EU law continues to apply to and within the UK, when it comes to rights and obligations; this includes the eligibility of UK legal entities to fully participate and receive funding in Horizon 2020 actions. Please be aware however that the eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to be eligible to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 50 of the grant agreement.

The Innovation Radar (IR) is a European Commission initiative to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation projects. Using the radar, 48 of the best EU-funded innovators have been identified to compete with their EU-funded innovation for the Innovation Radar Prize 2017.

This public vote will decide which 4 innovators go forward from each category to the final (the top 4 in each category in terms of votes secured go through to the final). The 20 finalists will then get to pitch their plans for going to market with their EU-funded tech to a jury of experts at the ICT Proposers' Day in Budapest (9 November 2017).

The jury will decide on one winner from each category. From the 5 category winners one overall 'Grand Prix' winner will be chosen by the jury who will be featured on a euronews programme about their innovation and its market potential.

Previous Innovation Radar Prize winners

The first ever Innovation Radar Prize was awarded to BroadBit, during the ICT 2015 event in Lisbon. Since then, BroadBit, an SME originally from Slovakia but now based in Finland, have raised additional finance to fund expansion and production of their innovative battery technology. Learn more about BroadBit in this euronews feature.

In 2016 the overall Innovation Radar prize was awarded to Intrinsic-ID, a Dutch SME, which developed a unique technology and has become a world leader in security systems. Their technology - authentication technology based on the electronic fingerprint of devices - was developed within the EU-funded project PUFFIN. Intrinsic ID are today selling this technology to customers around the world. Learn more about Intrinsic ID in this euronews feature

The European Commission is launching today the fifth edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators to award women entrepreneurs who have achieved outstanding innovations and brought them to market. The first prize is €100 000, with second and third prizes of €50 000 and €30 000 respectively. A special prize of €20 000 will be dedicated to the Rising Innovator Award (30-years-old or younger) for an exceptional innovator at the beginning of her career.

Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: "The EU Prize for Women Innovators gives public recognition to outstanding women entrepreneurs and inspires other women to follow in their footsteps. We have seen some exceptional achievements since the start of the competition. For example, the 2017 winners created an innovation lab bringing together scientists and artists, or invented the first ever digital tablet for blind users. I look forward to seeing many more fresh ideas and talent in the new edition of the contest."

The contest is open to women across the EU (or country associated to Horizon 2020) who have founded or co-founded their existing and active company before 1st January 2016. The contestant or company must have benefitted from public or private research and innovation funding. See further information on the eligibility and award criteria for the competition.

After the application deadline of 15 November 2017, a high-level jury will evaluate and select the four winners, to be announced on International Women's Day on 8 March 2018.

Background

Europe urgently needs more innovators to stay competitive in the coming decades and to spur economic growth. Women are underrepresented in terms of creating innovative enterprises. This is an untapped potential for Europe, which needs to optimise all available resources to remain competitive and find solutions to our societal challenges. That is why the Commission created a Prize for Women Innovators in 2011 to increase public awareness of this issue and to encourage women innovators to exploit the commercial and business opportunities and become entrepreneurs.

New service of Common Dissemination Booster (CDB) launched 15/09/2017

The Commission has just launched a brand-new service called the Common Dissemination Booster (CDB). We are looking for clusters of projects that are motivated and open to learning new dissemination techniques to help them make the best use of their common portfolio of results. Clusters can be based on common themes, target stakeholders, or service range to leverage complementary results. The CDB services are available to all, ongoing or closed, FP7 or H2020 projects as well as national or regional funded research and innovation projects. Be quick so you don’t miss out! The service works on a first-come-first-served basis. Please submit you application by 30th November 2017.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 27 September 2017 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement. 05/09/2017

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 27 September 2017 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne Building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

New Partner Search Service 14/07/2017

The Participant Portal (PP) provides a new service for finding collaboration partners for your future projects when applying for EU grants. It allows searching profiles of organisations that have previously received EU funding via the PP. The functionalities of the currently available beta version will be extended in the coming months.

Are you an entrepreneur or investor with experience of helping innovative companies to grow? If so, you could become one of our evaluators, reviewing proposals and business plans put forward by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from across the EU as they seek funding to support the development of breakthrough innovations. We also need your help to interview the best applicants and select the top innovators for funding.

From autumn 2017, the EU's research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 will support innovation projects from innovators, researchers, corporates and SMEs active in any sector or technology as we look to support breakthrough innovations that have the potential to create new markets. We aim to identify companies and entrepreneurs with the potential and ambition to grow internationally, as part of a pilot European Innovation Council. Applications for EIC funding will need to be evaluated by experts in innovation. And the best SME applicants will be interviewed by a panel of expert evaluators. The Commission is therefore looking to expand its pool of expert evaluators to include:

entrepreneurs who have started up and scaled up innovative enterprises at European or global level;

Early application is encouraged as the first interview panels will be drawn up in October 2017.

How to register your interest

If you are interested in becoming an evaluator, please complete both of the following steps:

1. First, register as an expert at this website. Please fill in your data and when prompted, select keywords that match your expertise. Under the tab 'Area of Expertise – Specialist fields' please also select the keyword 'market-creating innovation'.

2. Second, send an e-mail to EASME-EIC-INVESTORS@ec.europa.eu, including your name and surname. It is helpful to mention your expert number from the website mentioned above (example: EX2017A123456).

All information relating to the working conditions of evaluators can be found here.

Participant Portal User Group Meeting on 16 June at 10-12AM 12/06/2017

For improving the user-friendliness of our portal, we collect feedback and suggestions from users. To this end, we organise a next external user meeting, to which we would like to invite you. This event will be a web meeting, i.e. you can participate from your office. All you need is a computer with internet connection and a telephone. See the detailed instructions.

This web meeting will take place on Friday 16 June, starting at 10:00 (Brussels time).

We will present you the new services and developments planned for 2017:

A new Partner Search Service that allows searching organisations that could be potential partners for the EU funded proposals and projects. The first stage of this development would automatically display all the public data of organisations that are registered in the PP Participant Register. During the meeting we would present the service made public on PP the same week. We would also present the next planned development – expressing interest to find partners for a topic (call) published on the Participant Portal.

Revamping of the Participant Portal – Our portal publishes an increasing number of EU funding opportunities beyond Horizon 2020, and we aim at adapting the visual identity and navigation to reflect this broader scope. During the meeting we will present the testing version of the new developments and mockups of changes to the secured My Area.

PP notifications – TO and CC addressees of PP roles and grant management notifications are now visible to recipients. We interested in your feedback to this new feature.

Call for experts in the field of Defence Research 07/06/2017

1. The European Defence Agency (EDA) is launching a call for experts to be registered in the European Commission’s Participant Portal and who can be called on in connection with the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) (2017-2021), for the following tasks:

evaluation of proposals

monitoring of the implementation of actions

ethics reviews, checks and audits.

2. EDA is looking for experts with a high level of expertise and professional experience in a military context, in one or more of the following areas:

If your profile is not yet in the Participant Portal experts database, please start registering on the Experts page. If you are already registered, please edit your profile in My Expert Area, confirming that you want to serve as expert for Preparatory Action on Defence research.

Several Participant Portal users reported to us that they received emails from the e-mail address grants.eu@europa.eu, pretending to come from the Participant Portal, asking for vital personal and financial data such as ID or bank account details. Such e-mails may also ask you to click on a link or download an attachment to update your pertinent information there.

Your first action against phishing is to be vigilant. Protect yourself by keeping the following in mind:

2. Ignore phishing messages. Do not be coerced into following their instructions simply because they have threatened you that something will happen to your account or to your application for EU funding if you do not respond.

3. Exercise caution when opening attachments or downloading files. These may contain viruses or software that may pose security threats to your computer.

4. Update your user password regularly. Do not use passwords that can be easily attributed to you such as your name or birthday.

Video of the "Horizon 2020 - Performance and Simplification" meeting is now viewable online [05/05/2017]

The meeting of Commissioner Moedas with European stakeholder organisations that took place on 28 February 2017, "Horizon 2020 - Performance and Simplification", was filmed and can now be watched in full online.

Call for experts in the field of financial readiness of projects [26/04/2017]

INEA is looking for new experts to assess the financial readiness of project proposals submitted for EU funding.

Are you an experienced financial expert with skills in one or more of these fields: financial due diligence, credit application review, financial structuring or bankability analysis, transport/infrastructure financing, Public-Private Partnership or concession, asset-based, project-based or structured finance?

The selected experts will assess the financial readiness of project proposals submitted for the CEF Blending call. Evaluations of the project proposals will run for two weeks from 11 to 22 September 2017 in Brussels where your presence will be required maximum 8 hours a day.

New version of Horizon 2020 expert contract entered into force [01/04/2017]

On 1 April 2017, the revised Horizon 2020 model contract for experts enters into force.
Among the modifications made are the addition of three types of experts, update of the Code of Conduct
with consequences for non-compliance with expert obligations, new rules for expert groups, tasks
and code of conduct defined separately by type of experts and a new methodology for the calculation of expert fees for remote evaluation and ethics review.
Experts can find other changes, clarifications, corrections and new rules.
The new version is available at the Reference Documents page with more detailed change description.

The conference "Research & Innovation – shaping our future", hosted by Research, Science and Innovation Commissioner Carlos Moedas in Brussels on 3 July 2017, will bring together policymakers from EU institutions, nearly 700 stakeholders and interested actors to discuss the role of research and innovation for Europe's future.

Pascal Lamy, chair of the High Level Group on maximising the impact of European research and innovation programmes, will present the group's vision and recommendations for the future, based on the results of the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020. The conference will build further momentum for research and innovation as an investment for our future by:

Discussing the recommendations of the High Level Group;

Debating game-changing ideas in an interactive panel format;

Launching the stakeholder consultation for the successor framework programme.

DG Research and Innovation (DG RTD) has set up an Expert Group on the Future of Scholarly Publishing [27/02/2017]

DG Research and Innovation (DG RTD) has set up an Expert Group on the Future of Scholarly Publishing in order to support the research and innovation policy development on Open Science. The group’s tasks shall be to assess emerging and alternative open access business models with the aim of establishing how an economically viable transition towards open access can be achieved. An important element of the group's work will be establishing general principles for the future of open access publishing and scholarly communication.

The group shall consist of up to 12 members that can be either:

individuals appointed in a personal capacity, who will act independently and in the public interest);

On 27 February 2017, the Commission adopted revised Horizon 2020 model grant agreements, providing, among other changes, clarifications, corrections and new rules in favour of beneficiaries that can be applied retroactively (without amendment) to grants signed with the previous version. The new versions are available at the Reference Documents site. See also the short document with an overview of the main changes.

Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 01 March 2017 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement. 26/01/2017

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 01 March 2017 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne Building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 14 February 2017 in Brussels - How to Prepare Amendments and Reports. 23/12/2016

The European Commission is organising an information session in Brussels for Grant Coordinators, so they can learn legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare amendments and reports, with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs. The event will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 8.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for grant coordinators, but other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream). Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

Association of Switzerland to the whole of Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Euratom Programme and activities carried out by Fusion for Energy [20/12/2016]

On 16 December 2016 the Swiss Federal Council ratified the Protocol on the extension to Croatia of the Free Movement of Persons Agreement between the EU and Switzerland. This means that in accordance with Article 13(6) of the Agreement associating Switzerland to Horizon 2020 ('the Agreement'), as of 1 January 2017 the Agreement continues to apply and will be expanded to cover the whole of Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Euratom Programme 2014-2018 and activities carried out by Fusion for Energy. The relevant information can be found in the updated note regarding associated countries. The information note has been updated and contains FAQ and explanations concerning the status of Switzerland and of legal entities established in Switzerland in relation to participation to Horizon 2020 after 1 January 2017 and in the period of 'partial' association, i.e. between 15 September 2014 and 31 December 2016.

Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 23 September 2016 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement. 06/9/2016

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 23 September 2016 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Conference Centre Albert Borschette in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream).

The new versions of the Horizon 2020 work programmes 25/7/2016

The new versions of the Horizon 2020 work programmes for 2016-2017 have been adopted this 25 July 2016. Among the modifications made are the introduction of open research data in all Horizon 2020 calls and the launch of research topics on migration challenges. Support for a range of cross-cutting initiatives will also been continued in 2017.

On 20 July 2016, the Commission adopted revised Horizon 2020 model grant agreements, providing, among other changes, clarifications, corrections and new rules in favour of beneficiaries that can be applied retroactively (without amendment) to grants signed with the previous version.
The new versions are available at the Reference Documents site. See also the short document with an overview of the main changes.

Establishment of a High Level Group on maximizing the impact of EU Research and Innovation programmes, as part of the Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020 13/07/2016

In the context of the Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020, the European Commission is establishing a High Level Group on maximising the impact of EU Research and Innovation programmes in the future and to formulate a vision for future EU Research and Innovation.

Interested personalities and authoritative experts are invited to express their interest in becoming a member of this group, which is expected to have up to 12 members. It is expected to start its work in January 2017 for a period of six months. More details are available here.

An updated version of the H2020 Annotated Model Grant Agreement is available since 01 July 2016 on the Participant Portal. The updates concern the explanations on Article 18 regarding time records (including a model of timesheet with minimum requirements) and the 'List of issues applicable to particular countries'. The "history of changes" table at the beginning of the document lists the updated articles. In addition, a small green sign was put on the left-hand margin of the document next to the changed paragraphs/sections.

You might have to empty the cache of your Internet browser for viewing the updated version.

Outcome of the referendum in the United Kingdom 01/07/2016

The Statement of 29 June of the Heads of State or Government of 27 Member States, as well as the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, confirms that until the UK leaves the EU, EU law continues to apply to and within the UK, both when it comes to rights and obligations. This includes the eligibility of UK legal entities to participate and receive funding in Horizon 2020 actions.

Report on Horizon 2020 online survey on simplification published 30/05/2016

The report on the results of the H2020 simplification online survey, launched in 2015 after the first 20 months of Horizon 2020, is now available.
The feedback from more than 4000 respondents indicates that a significant proportion of users are satisfied with the simplification measures introduced in H2020. Furthermore, the vast majority of respondents with experience in both FP7 and Horizon 2020 confirmed that overall, the rules and processes in H2020 are simpler than in FP7.
Respondents also provided many suggestions on further improvements that the Commission is now analysing and implementing.
The full report is available via the following link: Report on the H2020 simplification survey

Co-funding mechanism to Indian Horizon 2020 participants 04/05/2016

The Indian Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the EU have agreed to implement a co-funding mechanism by which DBT could fund Indian research teams participating in certain Horizon 2020 collaborative projects, in areas related to biotechnology. See India co-funding country page.

Georgia signed the H2020 Association Agreement 29/04/2016

Georgia signed the Horizon 2020 Association Agreement on 29 April 2016. The agreement is retroactively applicable as from 1 January 2016. Researchers and innovators from Georgia are now able to participate in Horizon 2020 under the same conditions as their counterparts from EU Member States and other 14 associated countries.

Tunisia became H2020 Associated Country 13/04/2016

The Horizon 2020 Association Agreement with Tunisia entered into force on 13 April 2016. Researchers and innovators from Tunisia will now be able to participate in Horizon 2020 under the same conditions as their counterparts from EU Member States and other 13 associated countries.

Open consultations to prepare the next Horizon 2020 ICT work programme

The European Commission has launched four open consultations to prepare the next Horizon 2020 work programme. The objective is to gather input from e-infrastructure stakeholders on the challenges they face and collect ideas for Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), more particularly for the thematic orientations of FET Proactive and the FET Flagships schemes. In a fourth consultation, the European Commission seeks to shape the future work programme with innovative mathematical content. The underlying motivation is to lay the basis for future economic and societal benefits for Europe in the longer term

Research orientations for FET. The essence of FET is to stimulate the technological breakthroughs that will bring about radical change in the future. What are the science and technology themes that would benefit from a deeper exploration? Where do we need to channel resources to achieve the critical mass of interdisciplinary research that can put a new technology firmly on the map for a future wave of innovation? What are the most promising grand challenges in science and technology that can only be achieved through large scale multidisciplinary collaboration?

Key challenges of the future e-infrastructure. What are the key challenges ahead for e-infrastructure stakeholders? How to answer the increasing scientific data needs? How can industrial actors fully benefit from the services provided by European e-infrastructures? These are some of the questions for which we seek your input.

Consulting on Mathematics. This consultation wishes to identify new areas where mathematics in Europe could make a real difference while exploring how to inject more explicit mathematical content into the future work programme. How can mathematics be used to further European innovation? In which application domains are new mathematics needed? These are some of the questions looking for an answer. It follows up the workshop held in November 2014 based on the outcomes of a first online consultation on mathematics.

All consultations are available on theDigital4Science platform. The deadline of the four consultations is 30 April 2016. Share your views and help identify the themes of tomorrow's work programme for Excellence in Science.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 24 February 2016 in Brussels - How to Prepare Amendments and Reports

The European Commission is organising an information session in Brussels for Grant Coordinators, so they can learn legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare amendments and reports with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs. The event will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for grant coordinators, but other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream). Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

New FAQ page (12/2015)

The revamped FAQ page allows searches by keywords and tags (with autocomplete function) and filtering by categories or programmes.

The database of FAQs includes generic as well as call and topic related questions. For instance, when entering the call ID H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, you will get all the questions related to the 2016 call of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks.

You can save your search result, forward it to others or put it as hyperlink in documents or your own websites, by simply copying the web address (URL) of the page showing your filtered list of FAQs from your browser address field.

Consortium members must now be announced at first stage of a two stage call in Part A of the templates. Therefore, the short table of applicants on the Part B cover page is no longer needed for stage 1 proposals

For single stage and two stage proposals:

Changes to the proposal templates have been made to align with the revised wording of the ‘aspects to be taken into account’ for the three evaluation criteria, which are set out in General Annex part H of the Work Programme 2016/17.

Evaluation Forms

Changes to the self-evaluation forms have been made to align with the revised wording of the ‘aspects to be taken into account’ for the three evaluation criteria, which are set out in General Annex part H of the Work Programme 2016/17.

Utilisation of Genetic Resources: EU Regulation on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is in Force

The EU ABS Regulation, which transposes into EU law the compliance pillar of the Nagoya Protocol, entered into force on 12 October 2014 (the recently adopted Implementing Regulation document provides details on how the ABS Regulation is applied). The principal obligations defined in this Regulation apply since 12 October 2015. In particular, there are obligations of due diligence and monitoring compliance.

If you are utilising genetic resources (i.e. conduct research and development on the genetic and/or biological composition of genetic resources, including through the application of biotechnology), you should

be aware of the obligations arising from the ABS Regulation

ensure your project is compliant

Practical guidance for recipients of EU research funding will be made available on the Participant Portal as soon as possible. This will help you decide if you have obligations under the ABS Regulation and, if yes, how to comply.

Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day on 26 November 2015 in Brussels - How to Prepare Amendments and Reports - CANCELLED

The European Commission is organising an information session in Brussels for Grant Coordinators, so they can learn legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare amendments and reports with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs. The event will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for grant coordinators, but other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream). Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

The European Commission has recently launched a pilot action to fund open access peer-reviewed publications from finalised FP7 projects. It covers journal articles as well as monographs, book chapters, and conference proceedings.

This initiative is implemented by the project OpenAIRE2020. FP7 project participants currently in the process of publishing results from their finalised FP7 project will find the necessary tools and information on the OpenAIRE website

The eligibility of projects for funding can be checked on the pilot website. Only projects finalised in 2013 or later (but before the end of the pilot, which is expected in April 2017) will be eligible.

In addition, for all FP7 projects for which the grant agreement contains Special Clause 39 (Open Access clause) and which are therefore part of the FP7 Open Access Pilot, provisions for open access through self-archiving ('Green' open access) remain applicable after the project ends. Specifically, beneficiaries must:

deposit the peer-reviewed publications or final manuscripts into an online repository immediately upon publication, and

make their best effort to ensure open access to these publications within 6 months after publication (12 months in the case of the activity "Science in Society" and the thematic area "Socioeconomic Sciences and the Humanities").

More information about Open Access in FP7 can be found on both the Europa portal and the OpenAIRE website. ERC grantees can contact ERC-OPEN-ACCESS@ec.europa.eu in case they have any questions concerning the specific OA related obligations linked to their grant agreement.

All FP7 beneficiaries are invited to link their published research results to FP7 funding via the OpenAIRE website. OpenAIRE has already collected references to the majority of publications from FP7 funded projects. If beneficiaries or authors find that the information about their FP7 project publications is incomplete in OpenAIRE, they can easily add missing publications.

In a meeting on 25 September 2015 in Brussels (9.30 – 12.00), Mr. Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, will discuss the impact of the simplification measures introduced in Horizon 2020, and future simplification options, with representatives of major European stakeholder organisations.

25 September – Launch of online survey on simplification in Horizon 2020

On 25 September, the Commission launches an online survey to gather opinions from stakeholders on the impact of the simplification measures introduced in Horizon 2020, and to ask for new ideas on future simplification.

Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 08 September 2015 in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement.

08 September 2015 - 9.30H to 17.00H - Charlemagne Building, Brussels

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 08 September 2015 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream (no need to register in order to follow the web stream). Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

New release: grant management services (25/06/2015)

Bugfix: the ethics requirements are now included in the Annex I - Description of action (part A).

Webinar on the new Participant Register & Partner Search on the Participant Portal (27/05/2015)

Possibilities for improving the user-friendliness of the Participant Register and ideas for a potential Partner Search service are in the works for the Participant Portal, the central web platform for the EC research and innovation funding. You can learn more at the webinar on 27 May at 14-17:00 (Brussels time).

All the grant-related online exchanges of EC research and innovation funding are managed on the Participant Portal. To make the system as user-friendly as possible, the Commission seeks continuous advice from the actual users. A next meeting of an external user group is planned for May 27 2015 afternoon in Brussels. To allow maximum participation and input from a wide audience, this meeting will be webcast with a live stream. Additionally, a web forum will be used where any interested party can post questions and comments, either directly during the meeting or afterwards. The address of the web forum is:

It will allow you to watch the meeting in real time. The recording of the meeting will be available shortly after the meeting at the same address.

The agenda is available at the web forum site.

Time: 27 May 2015 at 14:00-17:00 (Brussels time)

Meeting type: Webinar

Launch of the 1st inducement prize under Horizon 2020 02/2015

The European Commission has launched the "Horizon Prize for better use of antibiotics", the 1st inducement prize under Horizon 2020. It offers €1 million to the person or team that develops a rapid test to tell whether a patient needs to be treated with antibiotics or not. With such a test, doctors will be able to quickly know whether patients with upper respiratory tract infections (such as the common cold, bronchitis and otitis) can be treated safely without antibiotics. The aim is to stop overuse of antibiotics and halt the growing resistance of micro-organisms to them that causes every year 25 000 deaths and over €1.5 billion in healthcare expenses and productivity losses in Europe alone.

Status of association of Ukraine to Horizon 2020 02/2015

The signature of the Horizon 2020 Association Agreement with Ukraine is expected for March 2015, but the Agreement will only enter into force once Ukraine has ratified it and notified the Commission.

Ukrainian entities are treated like entities from an Associated Country in all Horizon 2015 calls, including those already published, and in activities of JRC funded from 2015 budget. However, grant agreements with the Ukrainian entities will only be signed when the Association Agreement enters into force.

Third Horizon 2020 Coordinators' Day in Brussels - All you need to know about the preparation of your grant agreement (1/2015)

10 February 2015 - 9.30H to 17.00H - Mado Building, Brussels

What's next after you have received the message that your proposal has been successful? This event will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this
website. If you are not able to attend the event, you can watch one of the previous Coordinators' Days here.

New programmes start using the experts database (10/2014)

The 3rd Health Programme and the Consumer Programme, managed by the Consumer, Health and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA), and the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) are now using the European Commission's experts database to select experts for assignments including the evaluation of proposals and monitoring of projects. If you are already registered as an expert and wish to also indicate your interest in these programmes, please update your profile by ticking "RFCS (Research Fund for Coal and Steel)" and/or " Third Health Programme (managed by Chafea)" ('Programme Selection' section). New experts registering can indicate their interest in working for any of the programmes listed in the 'Programme Selection' section.

Model grant agreements amended 10/2014

Amended model grant agreements were adopted by the European Commission on 1 October 2014. All beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 grants will benefit from them. For the ones having signed or in the process of signing the previous version, the Commission will initiate the amendments later.
The purpose of the revisions to the model grant agreements is to correct some incoherencies and clerical mistakes and to introduce the following three more substantial changes:

Article 20.6 "Currency for financial statements and conversion into euro" in order to allow beneficiaries with accounts in other currencies than euro to convert into euro all costs incurred independently of the currency in which they were incurred (similar to FP7 projects).

Article 21.2 "Pre-financing payment - Amount - Amount retained for the Guarantee Fund" in order to give the possibility to the consortium to receive the pre-financing payment at an earlier date, namely 10 days prior to the starting date of the action.

Article 38.1.2 "Information on EU funding - Obligation and right to use the EU emblem" in order to ensure more visibility of EU funding

The amended MGAs are posted on the Participant Portal "Reference Documents" page. They include an indication on the more substantial changes and a link to a version showing the full track of all changes.

Second Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 13 October 2014 in Brussels - All you want to know about the preparation of your grant agreement.

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 13 October 2014 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via this website. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream. Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

SME Instrument: first 155 winners of grants announced 09/2014

The Commission has today published a list of the 155 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that will be first to benefit from its new €3 billion SME Instrument. 155 SMEs from 21 countries will each receive €50,000 to finance feasibility studies for their projects, and they can also benefit from up to three days of business coaching. After that, their projects may be considered for further financial support from the Commission worth up to €2.5 million.
For more detail, see the Commission press release.

Switzerland associated to parts of Horizon 2020 09/2014

Subject to signature and conclusion of an Agreement, Switzerland's partial association to Horizon 2020 takes effect on 15 September. The association agreement will cover limited elements of H2020. For more detail, please see Information on Swiss participation in Horizon 2020.

Horizon 2020 coordinators' day on 26 September 2014 in Brussels - All you want to know about the preparation of your grant agreement.

What's next after you received the message that your proposal was successful? The event on 26 September 2014 will provide all details on the preparation and signature of your grant agreement. It will take place in the Charlemagne building in Brussels from 9.30 to 17.00. It is mainly meant for coordinators of proposals who were invited to prepare a grant agreement. Other participants may be accepted subject to the availability of seats. Registration (first-come first-served) is via the following website: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/events/cf/h2020-coordinators-day/register.cfm. The agenda is available there. You will also be able to follow the event online through a live stream. Be aware that this webpage will only become available at the beginning of the event.

With the publication of the revised Horizon 2020 work programmes on 23 July 2014

calls for proposals are presented in a new way in the categories "forthcoming", "open" and "closed". A call is categorised "forthcoming" between the date of publication of the work programme and the call opening date. A call is categorised "open" from the moment of opening the electronic submission service until the call deadline. After the call deadline, a call is categorised "closed".

Consumer Programme - first calls published 07/2014

Call for expressions of interest to become candidate member of the SESAR JU 07/2014

Published on the SESAR JU web site, the call for expression of interests to become candidate member of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) is addressed to the current members, who wish to confirm their interest in SESAR Research and Innovation Programme 2020, and to any new entity who intends to become a member of the SESAR JU. For the call criteria and further information, please see the call web site (ref: SJU/LC/0110-CEI).

Five JTIs publish their first H2020 calls on the Participant Portal 07/2014

The five JTIs - BBI, Clean Sky 2, ECSEL, FCH2 and IMI2 - are publishing their first Horizon 2020 calls on the Participant Portal on 9 July 2014.

Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) are public-private partnerships involving industry, research community and public authorities to pursue common ambitious research objectives.

You find more information about the priorities and topics of their first calls under Horizon 2020 in the following pre-announcements:

The Participant Portal, the central web platform for the EC research and innovation funding, is improving its user-friendliness and functions for H2020. You can learn more at the webinar on 24 June at 14-17:00 (Brussels time).

All the grant-related online exchanges of EC research and innovation funding are managed on the Participant Portal. To make the system as user-friendly as possible, the Commission seeks continuous advice from the actual users. A next meeting of an external user group is planned for 24 June 2014 afternoon in Brussels. To allow maximum participation and input from a wide audience, this meeting will be webcast with a live stream. Additionally, a web forum will be used where any interested party can post questions and comments, either directly during the meeting or afterwards. The address of the web forum is:

It will allow you to watch the meeting in real time. The recording of the meeting will be available shortly after the meeting at the same address.

A draft agenda is available at the web forum site.

Time: 24 June 2014 at 14:00-17:00 (Brussels time)

Meeting type: Webinar

New features on Participant Portal (PP) 06/2014

1. You have now a possibility to contact the Legal Entity Appointed Representatives (LEARs) of organisations. The organisation (PIC) search list of results has a green CO ("Contact Organisation") action button providing a contact form for submitting your question to the LEAR.

2. The list of proposals for the LEARs now includes also all Horizon 2020 proposals of the organisation, and a first version of a downloadable list (Excel) with an extended data set on their organisation's proposals. The content of this list is subject to further improvements in future releases.

3rd Health Programme - first calls published 06/2014

Iceland and Norway join Horizon 2020 (05/2014)

Iceland and Norway sign up to join Horizon 2020: on 16 May the two countries became the first non-EU countries to associate to Horizon 2020, the seven-year EU research and innovation programme launched in January. The decision takes effect from the beginning of Horizon 2020 allowing these two countries' researchers and companies to participate on the same basis as their counterparts in the EU. The Commission press release.

New release of the Participant Register tool (02/2014)

The new version of the of the Participant Register tool, released on 28 February, includes a questionnaire that allows determining whether an organisation is an SME according to the EU Recommendation 2003/361/EC and thus whether it is eligible to apply for the funding of certain H2020 actions.

Information on Swiss participation in Horizon 2020 (02/2014)

First H2020 calls published on 11 December (01/2014)

The first calls for projects of the new Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme were published on the Participant Portal on 11 December 2013.

You can find all the calls in the section Funding opportunities: the page H2020 Calls lists all the open calls, while on the page Search Topics you can search for topics of your interest by key words or via free text search.

The Horizon 2020 funding opportunities for 2014-2015 are set out in Work Programmes that are available on the Reference Documents page.

All Calls are sub-divided into Topics: Topic pages describe the scope and expected impact of proposals for the given topic, list the eligibility conditions and evaluation criteria and other conditions, and provide access to the electronic submission system. On the Call pages you find additional documentation, such as the Work Programme, call related FAQ, support services and helpdesks, etc.

New Improved Participant Portal (12/2013)

The layout of the Participant Portal has been redesigned to help you find the information you need as quickly and simply as possible. The main changes are:

Improved speed for LEARs - the full lists of your projects will be available faster than before

New layout of calls - the section of H2020 calls will be available on 11 December

Topics as sub-division of H2020 calls - you submit your proposals to a particular topic as compared to FP7 submission to a call

Search topics of open calls with free keywords

Proposal submission forms - templates in pdf format will be available on the "topic conditions" section of the H2020 call service

New section How to participate giving the main steps for newcomers to prepare their proposal

H2020 Online Manual - overview of all steps you need to know for the electronic management of proposals or grants

SME participation - dedicated guidance page for SMEs

H2020 and FP7 Reference Documents are available in the section How to Participate

Experts' interactions with Commission services will be fully electronic: experts selected for assignments will sign their contracts electronically and submit their payment requests online.

Beneficiary registration tool is getting ready for H2020. Under the "Research & Innovation" section, self-registrants (or LEARs when updating data) will be able to declare also the "civil society organisation" status. The FP7 Indirect Cost Method will need to be defined only when self-registering for FP7 and becomes by default not applicable for H2020.

Access to continue an unfinished registration of an organisation is moved to the section My area -> My Organisations